Tales of the goings on at Hollyford Pottery, near the tiny village of Stockleigh English in Devon, England

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Packed and fired

Well since last I posted, Marky Mark and I have packed and fired the kiln.

Here are some pictures of the action.

Some glazed pots prior to packing.

Look at that, packing with a spirit level - what ever is my world coming to?!

We finished the pack just after midnight - it was hard work, out in the cold of the kilnshed - MM had been at work all day and I'd been flat out with glazing, so this was like doing another day's work on top. Deservedly, when we finished, we sat down on the newly installed 'sofa' beside the woodburner in the workshop and enjoyed a celebratory tin of lager - nice.

We'd decided to sleep up at the workshop, the thinking being that we wanted to make an early start and it would be easier to fall out of bed on-site rather than getting out of a comfortable bed at home to encounter Arctic conditions. It saved all of that scraping ice from the windscreen and suffering the prevailing, icy blast of the blower in the car on the drive to the workshop. So we stoked up the burner and made our beds up on the racks, then slept soundly until ten to six in the morning....

...when the alcohol was replaced with caffeine

It was really icy and all day long visitors would comment on how cold it was, but we were so well wrapped up in winter thermals and we were feeding a big box of fire, so didn't feel it at all. In fact it was a beautiful, sun bathed day to be firing, in spite of the fact that the temperature didn't rise above freezing and there were the occasional, short flurries of minute snow flakes on the North wind, which thankfully, came to anything.

The new chimney worked well again, helped by the light wind.

as did Marky Mark ;-)

Now the long wait in readiness for the excitement/despondency of the unpack and a collection of new work/landfill. Fingers crossed. Watch this space.